Salling was facing a possible sentence of four to seven years in prison as part of a plea deal agreed to in October. The agreement stated that a search warrant found more than 50,000 images of child porn on Salling’s computer and a thumb drive. He would also have been required to register as a sex offender.

Salling’s attorney, Michael Proctor, provided the following statement to People: “I can confirm that Mark Salling passed away early this morning. Mark was a gentle and loving person, a person of great creativity, who was doing his best to atone for some serious mistakes and errors of judgment.”

Salling was best known for his portrayal of Noah “Puck” Puckerman on the Fox musical-comedy series “Glee,” which aired from 2009 to 2015.